TRENTON – A New Jersey Appellate Court ruled unanimously that the state cannot mandate that students pass two PARCC exams in English and Math as a requirement for a high school degree.
The ruling came Dec. 31 in a lawsuit filed against the state by the Education Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ).
The suit argued that state law technically requires a single 11th grade exam for graduation, not separate exams for Math and English proficiency.
In 2016 the Christie Administration began phasing out alternative testing in a process that would leave students no option but passing the PARCC English Language Arts 10 and Algebra I exams as a requirement for high school graduation. The mandate was to take full effect with the graduating class of 2020.
Public opposition to the requirement centered on current PARCC results which showed that thousands of students would be at risk of not graduating under the new mandate.
The court delayed the impact of its ruling for 30 days to give the state time to appeal to the state Supreme Court or reassess its policy.
